My lighter skin certainly has not allowed me a more privileged life. I feel cheated.

(July 11, 2013 at 6:15 pm)paulpablo Wrote:

Quote:No. Native American culture may have come to an untimely end, but who is to say ours won't? But while it lasted, Native Americans of central and South America exhibited a cultural continuity that at least matched those of the ancient Egyptians, who remain to this day the undisputed champion of longetivity of civilizational preeminance in the old world.

What relevance does this have to anything?

American Indians didn't deserve to end up on the bottom of list of accomplished civilizations.

(July 11, 2013 at 6:20 pm)Gilgamesh Wrote: I like how there's only 2 actual responses on the first page. Everything else:
"durr facepalm jeez ur such a racist dood"
"ya i agree man hes so racist him and this guy should form a racist fanclub lol"
"lol ya man good one totally burned him lolol #swag"

Meh.

But I like rythm's post. I don't think America, for example, is civilised, even relative to Africa. They'er just different. There's tons of shit America does that's horrible/illogical, in 'my' opinion.

Eventually a person accumulates enough shit posts vs intelligent posts to merit not taking them seriously in the slightest.

(July 11, 2013 at 6:25 pm)Chuck Wrote:

(July 11, 2013 at 6:15 pm)paulpablo Wrote: What relevance does this have to anything?

American Indians didn't deserve to end up on the bottom of list of accomplished civilizations.

It wasn't a list of accomplished civilizations, I wouldn't know how to begin to judge that. But I probably would put them sort of near the bottom, as harsh as that sounds.

(July 11, 2013 at 6:26 pm)paulpablo Wrote: It wasn't a list of accomplished civilizations, I wouldn't know how to begin to judge that. But I probably would put them sort of near the bottom, as harsh as that sounds.

What exactly were you rating, then?

(July 11, 2013 at 6:20 pm)Gilgamesh Wrote: I like how there's only 2 actual responses on the first page. Everything else:
"durr facepalm jeez ur such a racist dood"
"ya i agree man hes so racist him and this guy should form a racist fanclub lol"
"lol ya man good one totally burned him lolol #swag"

Meh.

It's not that surprising, when people speak rationally or truthfully, it will inevitably attract irrational people. Irrationality can only be sustained through attacking rationality and curiosity.

Zombies go were the life is.

(July 11, 2013 at 6:20 pm)Gilgamesh Wrote: But I like rythm's post. I don't think America, for example, is civilised, even relative to Africa. They'er just different. There's tons of shit America does that's horrible/illogical, in 'my' opinion.

Definitely, light skins use more cunning forms of violence to control people, rather than the brutal violence employed in Africa for instance.

(July 11, 2013 at 6:29 pm)thesummerqueen Wrote:

(July 11, 2013 at 6:26 pm)paulpablo Wrote: It wasn't a list of accomplished civilizations, I wouldn't know how to begin to judge that. But I probably would put them sort of near the bottom, as harsh as that sounds.

What exactly were you rating, then?

Quote:If life was a game of civilization I think the league table would look pretty much like

1 Great Britain
2 America
3 Rome
4 China

I wasn't rating anything, it says at the top, if life was a game of civilization, I'm talking about the computer game where you lead a civilization to power and you're judged at the end of the game by several factors, technology, if you have managed to get into outer space, the amount of wars you have won, how many years at peace you have had (admittedly Britain and America would have quite a few points deducted for that bit) and other things, how happy your people are and all sorts.

(July 11, 2013 at 6:31 pm)Koolay Wrote: It's not that surprising, when people speak rationally or truthfully, it will inevitably attract irrational people. Irrationality can only be sustained through attacking rationality and curiosity.

Zombies go were the life is.

Aaaaaannnddd in comes the martyr talk.

(July 11, 2013 at 6:15 pm)paulpablo Wrote: Well since in the game civilization you get points for
1 empire size, easily won by Britain,

Mongol empire was larger, as was and still is Russia, unless you include the wet stuff the Britainnia alledgedly ruled.

(July 11, 2013 at 6:15 pm)paulpablo Wrote: even larger than the roman empire, ,

One in four human beings on the planet heiled Caesar. The largest fraction ever to sing god save the queen (ha) was?

(July 11, 2013 at 6:15 pm)paulpablo Wrote: Technological adances.
England. The electric motor, the telephone, military tank,, world wide web, sewage system, the industrial revolution, the london exchange (actually a wonder in the game civilization) the jet engine, penicillin, the periodic table, the submarine, television, the world wide web, the english language.

I heard Britain ialso nvented air, water, fire, and earth too. In fact, before the Britain started inventing everything, even britain didn't exist.

But Romans invented latin and named the island "Britain", does that count?

(July 11, 2013 at 6:15 pm)paulpablo Wrote: I don't know of any Egyptian inventions as important/world changing as any of these, thinking about it realistically .

The Egyptians invented sails, without which the British could row to India. The Egyptian invented the ox drawn plough, without which the british would scratch out a living with digging sticks, the Egyptians invented paper, parchement, and ink, without which Magna Carta would have been scratched into clay tablets.

(July 11, 2013 at 6:15 pm)paulpablo Wrote: I can't think that Egypts empire came remotely close to ever being this powerful.

They were powerful enough to still be a leading civilization in the hotbed of world's civilizations 2000 years after they built pyramids. 500 years after Britain first acquired a navy, she is about to be disappear into oblivion.

(July 11, 2013 at 5:46 pm)cratehorus Wrote: guns germs and steel is a book that simply furthers the racist theory of enviromental determinism and can be considered quite racist as it's conclusion is the same as the OP that lighter skin societies are better and it's because of the enviroment and "here's why"..... the truth is societies with the smallest/defunct male genitalia are the most inherently violent and therefore focus more on developing technology and killing eachother rather than lying in sun eating and having sex any alien intelligent lifebeing would easily say darker skin is far more "civilized"

So did you not read it or did you just fail to understand it? The guy's thesis was a response to a question from a native person from (as I remember) New Guinea, asking why it was that foreigners had so much more "cargo" (to trade) than they do. The whole book is an answer to that question and the answer boils down to a couple key inventions coupled with a long history of living with stock animals.

One of his key points is that domestication of livestock wasn't so much brilliant of us as it was lucky that we happened to live where large herbivores were domesticable. Most aren't and never will be. Crops found anywhere on the euroasian land mass would pretty much succeed anywhere else there since the change is one of latitude, not longitude, with only altitude differences to account for: another bit of luck that neither the continent of Africa nor the Americas benefit from.

Because of the availability of animal labor and particular requirements of growing the available food plants, the number of hours of labor required to feed one person in New Guinea vs Europe pretty much rules out much specialization which crimps invention and the advance of technology. So another point is that the 'foreigners' are not intrinsically brighter. He even gives evidence for thinking the opposite is true in terms of native intelligence.

With our technological advantages and the germs which we'd grown immune to through long years of living in close proximity with domesticated animals, peoples in the southern hemisphere really couldn't compete. So, in short, it was good fortune not any racist conception of superiority which gave us the advantage.